“Jerry” may have been born in Nigeria. His family may have moved to Washington, D.C. when he was 8. But this is a 21-year-old who oozes athletic swagger. Rarely have I met a young man so sure of himself, so positive of his abilities, so certain he’s going to succeed -- and yet, at the same time, so pleasant.

The NFL may be big, but not too big for him. Jerry Attaochu is unafraid. And if you’re going to play outside linebacker in The League for many years, which the former Georgia Tech star plans to do, then the Chargers’ second-round draft choice has the right attitude.

He’s here to be a force.

“I’m going to be an amazing player,” concedes the 6-3, 253-pound Attaochu, in town for the team’s weekend rookie camp. “I’ve been blessed throughout my career and I hope to continue that here. I’m going to be a fixture on this defense for years to come.

“I was a three-star recruit out of high school playing with all these 4-and-5-star guys. I had the drive to succeed. I was one of the best pass rushers to go through Georgia Tech. But I’m not a big hype guy. I came here to go to work.”

Attaochu is such a mild, articulate, seemingly well-adjusted kid, you wonder how he makes it in a violent game. But he’s obviously one of those players with an on-off switch. When he plays football, the ornery comes out.

“I’m mean,” he says. “Ask any of my teammates. That’s who I am. When I started playing the game, I was that crazy kid on the field. I had intensity people couldn’t match. Off the field, I’m a completely different person.

“My teammates thought I was crazy, but I have to be in that state of mind when I play. I’m always in a state of paranoia. I’ve got to take your head off. There is no calm to me on the field.”

Attaochu may have been born in Nigeria, but if he walked up to you and said hello you’d have no idea he wasn’t born here. There is no accent. A science, technology and culture major at Georgia Tech -- he has a semester to complete before graduation, which he plans to do -- English is his first language.

“My mom and dad spoke English in our house,” he says. “Kids in school spoke English; we spoke British English.

“My dad was an exchange student here in the ‘80s. He went back and married my mom. It was a little different for us. We weren’t poor. We had a decent house. My dad finished ministry school and went to work for a church in D.C. He still works there and hopes to start his own church in Maryland.

“If I went back to Nigeria, I probably wouldn’t be able to survive. But it was a good life then.”

A life without American football. He had no idea. He played soccer. He didn’t see an NFL game until he came to the United States. His freshman year at Archbishop Carroll High in D.C., he saw a line for athletic physicals and went in a room hoping to make the soccer team.